Family
by Einna Aroura Du'an
Summary: A kid and Jacks new boyfriend helps Riddick sort out a few of his own family issues.
1. Park Time

Family

Chapter 1

By Einna Aroura Du'an

Summery – Kid…boyfriend…read and see.

AN: Riddick POV for the most part. Bit of narrator and possibly other characters later. Most of this is because Jack I can do, OC's I can do, but Riddick is takin a bit of practise.

AN 2: I started writing this before writing the OoME. I realize it has similarities to 'Imaginary friend', but the plot is completely different later on. I also started writing this before imaginary friend, and gleaned no inspiration from Imaginary friend at all. BTW, Imaginary friend is an awesome story. If you like Riddick doin the fluffy dad thing, you'll love Imaginary friend. Go read it. NOW!

AN 3: I don't have a clue how to do italics, therefore, an Imarks my italics.

Disclaimer: As per always, if I owned Riddick, I wouldn't be here writing about him.

III

I know

She thinks I don't, but I know.

Sneakin' off every day almost, givin' me patchy stories of people she doesn't know.

We've been here for three months. She's seventeen years old. I suppose, tragic as it is, it's to be expected.

Jack found herself a boy friend.

I don't give two shits, really. Just so long as he keeps his dick in his pants. And so long as she doesn't come screaming in one evening in tears. I don't do all the daddy shit, she knows that, so fuck if I'm doin' the mommy shit to!

I knew straight away, of course. She went out with Joanne one night, and Cube the next. But each night, she came home smellin the same. And not only was it not of herself or Joanne or Cube, it was very, very distinctly male. Musky, salty...definitely male. See, women smell sweeter than men. They smell like some kind of flower or fruit or shit. Stronger women, more sexual ones smell like the type of shit you mix with your alcohol with. Other ones, weaker ones, smell of roses or Jasmine or some of that watery shit you get in bottles.

Jack smells like Dadanian roots. This spicy shit off Catraka five. Add it with vodka, the old stuff, and I swear, I drop would put you out for a month. Like her.

Hope this boy knows what he's gettin himself in for.

Of course, I couldn't just let them get on with it. If Jack can't tell me what's goin on, there's gotta be a reason for it.

I don't really care what she's up to, just so long as...

Oh, fuck it, who am I kiddin? I'm lookin' out for her.

I've spent the last three years keepin' her safe from Mercs, then Necro's, various bounty hunters and shit. Even now, we're not as safe as I'd like. I guess that even though this punk is just that, old habits really do die hard. I can't help but feel I gotta keep her safe, and I know what a dick some boys can be. Fuck, I should know!

So, needless to say, that is the IonlyIreason I am here. Sittin in a fuckin' park, surrounded by fuckin' IkidsIIf I'm honest, I don't mind half as much as I make out I do, it's just that I got a certain reputation to keep up here.

Certain reputation that'll be flyin' out the window soon.

There are five people in the park across the street from me...Jack, her boyfriend, the boyfriends' two sisters, and another kid. Small, four or five, dark hair in little curls. Kinda cute. Sat all on her own on the round-about. I would think her mom was late or somthin, but she was here when Jack and the boy got here, and that was hours ago. I think someone just left her there while they fucked off to do somethin else. I know I'm commitin social suicide by even thinkin it, but it's fucked up when parents do that. There's a reason I never had kids...beside the part about not havin a woman. I never wanted a family cause I knew I couldn't take care of them properly. My life's been too fucked up, so so am I, and I'm too fucked up to love someone...or to find someone who can honestly love me, and a kid? Fuck it. Jack's bad enough. I love her like hell...she's the one person I'd die for, but she knows me. She knows how fucked up life can make people, after what happened to her five years ago. Gettin slaved out is one of the few things I have no experience with. Torture? Sure. I ain't no stranger to that. But at that age. I never killed that young neither. My first kill was at fourteen. Hers was at twelve. I guess that had a large part to play in it.

There is no one else in this universe that can understand why she is the way she is. No one knew her before, during, and after that planet, no one knew her aboard the Kublah Kahn, no one was there for her first kill. No one but me, and Imam. And he's dead. Besides, even he hadn't seen the nightmares, even he hadn't known what had happened...he hadn't had to hear every fuckin' detail from the mouth of a desroyed child. I have.

Maybe that's got something to do with it.

I've been watching out for her for years now, and I still am.

Only now, there's this other kid to. Who the fuck is she?

I don't know. I don't even know the kids name, but I still don't want to just leave her here alone. So I'll stay, at least until Jack leaves. I'll keep an eye on them both for now.

The other thing that worries me is the only other person in the park besides me. Casual dress, unsuspicous, especially for this time of the year, but to me he stands out like a sore fuckin' thumb. I know this man's a killer. most days, I'd respect that, and walk away, but I know who comes here. The neighbourhood Jack and I live in is not one of the nicest ones for obvious reasons, plus the fact that neither me nor her are comfortable in places like that. This is our natural enviroment.

Unfortunatelty though, most other killers are drawn to the same sort of spot.

The other man is watching the park intently, his eyes searching the faces of Jack and her boy, then drifting across the faces of the children. Well, I don't need to hear it to know what this dude's game is. He's probably workin' out which kids are accounted for and which ones ain't. He probably can tell about me, just as I can about him, that at least one person's blood is on my hands, and therefore, I'm ruled out as a parent.

But whose kids?

Which child is safest to take?

The answer's an obvious one, but he won't move while there are witnesses. Until Jack and the punks' family have left, the other kid's safe.

But when they leave, and I follow?

I know what'll happen to her.

Jack stands up.

Why the fuck should I care? What do I owe this kid, her family? Why the hell should I help someone who hates me, or soon will be taught to hate me at least.

The boyfriend calls his sisters over. The man on the bench across from me starts to pay attention.

He's gonna act. Soon.

The man's quite pathetic, really. It's obvious he preys on children...there's barely any muscle on his limbs, and barely any build to his frame. I could take him easily.

But what's the point? Why should I?

Jack's leaving with the boyfriend. The sisters go one way, towards the boyfriends' house, and Jack and him go another. What the fuck do they think they're up to?

I stand up to follow them, but I stop.

They've left the park now, chattin' happily down the road.

But the little girl?

She's sittin' on the swings, kickin her legs lazily. The man's walkin' over to her, offering her a push...

Jack disappears around the corner.

Shit. I hate it when my conscious shows up.

Carolyn's fault, I promise you right this fuckin' second.

Fuck it.

"Hey," I call out as I walk over to the park.

The guy turns towards me, and I can see the colour drain from his face.

"Y-your kid?" he stammers, and I suppress a grin. Yeah, he's shittin himself here.

I don't answer, don't even nod, he just assumes it is and runs. Very fuckin' fast.

"Hey," comes a small voice from the swings. "Why'd you do that? He was nice."

I turn towards the kid, and I don't have a fuckin' clue what to tell her. 'you should be thankful that I just saved you from the nut case who probably would have sold you like a piece of meat' or 'see how nice you think he is when he's slittin' your throat'.

"I know him," I tell her simply. "He's an as- an idiot. You wouldn't like him once you got to know him."

She slides off the slide as I begin to walk away and follows me out of the park in the direction Jack went.

"Are you nice?"

Are you kidding? Surely he folks haven't avoided tellin her just who her neighbour is. Then again, someone left her in a fuckin park, alone. I wouldn't be surprised.

"No," I tell her. "I'm nasty."

"Oh," she replies. She carries on following me though. "So why did you tell him to go away?"

"I didn't," I point out. "He left on his own."

True enough.

I turn the corner Jack turned and quickly double take as I see her heading back towards the direction I'm in. She probably just wanted to get something quickly...come to think of it; didn't one of her friends live on this street? Cara or Carol or -

"Well, I like you."

What the fuck?

I would probably tell her something else, but I'm too busy trying to haul my ass out of the line of sight of the fast approaching teenage.

"What are you doing?" Asks the kid. IWhy oh why did I save this little snot?II ask myself. Jack is gonna kill me if she spots me.

"Playing a game." I tell the kid quickly.

"Yeeeee!" She screams, and I'm tempted to grab her and clap a hand over her mouth. "What kind of game?"

"See them?" I ask, point to Jack and her boyfriend through the hedge I'm hiding behind.

"Mmmhmm," she nods.

"We gotta hide from them," I tell her. "Kinda like hide and seek."

"Cool!" She shouts, and this time, I do press a hand to her mouth.

"Hiding, remember?"

She nods, he eyes gleaming. Within a few seconds, Jack and the walking zit hanging off of her arm are past us, and heading in the direction of his house.

"They didn't see us!" The kid squeals. "They didn't see, they didn't see." Geez, now it has a little dance too.

I start off after Jack again, seriously wishing the kid would just leave me alone. But no such luck...she follows me after Jack.

"Are you walkin me home?" She asks after a few seconds.

"Why?" I ask her, "You live here?"

She stops walking and for some strange, bizarre and utterly fucked up reason, I stop too and turn around.

"I'm not supposed to tell strangers." She tells me.

"Well," I tell her holding out my hand, "my name's Richard."

She beams and grabs my hand...or tries. She has to settle for wrapping her chubby fingers around two of mine.

"I'm Koli," she tells me. "Now that we're not strangers, I live there," she announces, pointing to the house next to the boyfriends.

"Bye, Richard!" She shouts over her shoulder as she skips back to her house.

I really, IreallyIfuckin' hate that name. But then, a guess there'd be hell to pay if she went skipping merrily into the house and told her parents that Riddick had walked her home. Yeah, that'd go down. Like a brick.

There was a serenity spot at the end of the street, perfect for hiding in. It had a pond and ducks and benches...you know, serene shit, but most importantly, it had trees. There was one tree in particular, where you can see the entire street and not be seen at all.

I swing up onto the tree and wait for Jack to leave.


	2. Visits

Summery – Still the same story

AN: I'm still thick, so the Iare still my italics.

Disclaimer: IGazes longingly at Riddick desktopIWhy don't I own that?

Two days later, and she's off again. Jack's visiting the boy, and needless to say, she's off to Joannes and won't be long. 'Course, I gotta follow her, haven't I?

There's a gap between two of the houses on our street which lets you through the the other street across, the one with the boyfriend on it. Jack goes around, I go through. That way, I can watch her the entire time, and when she's in the house, I dash for serenity Park.

There's no one in the streets...either of them...so I know I'm safe. Jack jogs to the boyfriends' house. She knocks on the door, and the zit walks out, kisses her on the cheek...IDon't rip his head off...don't rip his throat out...you ain't even meant to be here, RiddickII tell myself.

She smiles at him and they disappear into the house. My chance. I make my dash for the park, calm and serene as you like.

"RICHARD!"

Fuck.

"You came to visit me!"

The kid from the day before last comes screemin over to me, grabs onto my hand. I try to shake her off, but the kid seems completely retarded.

"Not quite, kid." I try to tell her, pullin' my hand away from hers. I head towards the park again, and she follows me.

"Where are you going?" She whines. "You only just got here, and I want you to meet my mommy."

I have to stop myself from laughing at that.

"I don't think your mommy'll wanna meet me, kid." I tell her honestly.

"Sure she would!" Koli screeches. "She'll be glad I got a new friend!"

I can see Jack and another shadow, probably the boyfriend, through the upstairs window of his house. If she looks out the window, I'm standing right in her view. I try again to make a break towards the end of the road, the kid still on my heels.

"Don't you have any other friends your own age you can tell her about?" I ask, more than just a little annoyed by now.

"No," she tells me, sorta sad. What the hell? That can't be right. This kid's what, five years old? You show me a five year old with no friends.

"How's that then, kid?" I, pulling a U-turn into her garden. Not the park, but out of Jack's view at least.

"They don't like my daddy and my daddy doesn't like them," She tells me.

I shrug. Not my problem.

"Meet my mommy?"

No fuckin way.

"Listen, kid, your Mommy ain't gonna like me very much." I try telling her as I see Jack's shadow move away from the window. I try to leave to head back to the park whilst I have the chance, but she grabs my fingers again.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease!"

IPlease, CarolynI, I try arguing with my conscience, affectionately named after IherI. IPlease let me just kill herI.

"No, kid. I said no."

She lets' go of my hand and steps back, her eyes widening and the bottom lip quivering.

IAww, shit.I

"Don't cry, kid." I try to tell her. "I just don't want no one no one knowin' I'm here, that's all. The only ones I want to know about me are the ones who already do."

"Well, I know about you." She reasons.

"That you do, kid." I tell her, tryin' to walk away again. Again, she grabs my hand.

"Will you come back?" She asks, hopeful.

IAww shitI...I moan. She'll probably start cryin' or something if I say no. Then her mom'll come out givin me hell and the already cold welcome Jack and I get here will freeze over entirely. I don't care about it, personally, but it'd fuck up Jacks time of it an all.

"Okay," I tell her in the end. "I'll come back and visit you sometime."

"Yeeeeeeeee!" She squeals. "Richard's gonna visit, Richard's gonna visit."

IPlease Carolyn? PLEASE?I

III

"What the hell's going on out there?" Damian muttered to himself as he stood up and made his way towards the window.

"Damian," he girlfriend moaned as he opened the window to hear better. "I got a head-ache already. You make it worse and I'll get seriously shiv-happy on your ass!"

Damian smiled. Sure, his girlfriend scared the hell out of him sometimes. Her shiv was damn sharp, and she knew how to use it, he'd seen that. But she was one of the nicest people he knew. She had told him a few times that she had learned fighting from her foster father, but she never told him who he was.

Hell, he didn't even know who she was. Not really. Her name was Jaclyn B. Badd as far as she told him, and she was not registered. He tracked her once, out of boredom and curiosity. It revealed she had once been registered aboard a ship, the Hunter Gratzner, which had gone missing, and then later aboard a Merc ship. After that, nothing. The Merc ship reported her dead a few days after she had signed up to them.

He hadn't asked her, hoping that she would tell him some day on her own. A person like her would undoubtedly not appreciate being tracked, and besides, he'd probably gotton it wrong anyway somehow.

He didn't care though. A person like her was worth the doubt. Worth the not knowing.

"What's going on?" She asked, coming up behind him where he stood at the window.

"Not sure, he told her. "Coli next door shouting the odds, I think."

Sure enough, drifting in from outside was a small voice chanting "Richard's gonna visit, Richard's gonna visit!"

IHuh?IShe thought Iit can't be..I.

She peered over her boyfriends shoulder and saw outside a small child, running around her garden, being chased by a very familiar man.

"Riddick," Jack growled. She dashed out of the room, grabbing her shiv off the bed and with a look on her face Damian could describe only as murderous. "I'll kill him!"

III

"Richard's gonna visit, Richards gonna visit..."

IShut-up, shut-up, shut-up..I. Jack'll kill me if she finds out I'm here. Shit, Coli's mom'll hold me down while Jack does it!

"Richard's gonna visit, Richard's gonna visit!"

IShut up, shut up, shut up shut-I

"What's all the noise about?"

Fuck!

Standing in the doorway of the house, a short, red headed woman has her hands folded over her chest, tapping her foot expectantly. She hasn't seen me, thankfully. I'd chased Coli across the street, and hadn't started back when the kid had. I quickly vanished behind one of the plants in the garden I was in, and waited there until Coli had run up to her mom.

"Richard's gonna come visit me, mommy!" She squeals and I shrink further into the shrubs.

"Richard? Who's he?" She asks.

"My friend," she tells her mom. "He brought me home two days ago and he came to play again today!"

Kids. Have a certain way of making everything sound like they got it right, don't they? Even when there's nothin further from the truth.

"Where is this friend of yours then?" She asks.

Coli looks around and I duck my head down. I can't let her spot me, because I know that if she does, I'm busted.

"He's was here a minute ago," she sticks her lip put again and her mom laughs, pickin her up and carryin her back inside.

"I'm sure he was sweetie," the mom tells her.

Great. Mommy dearest thinks I'm an imaginary friend.

A few seconds later, mother and daughter are back inside the house, and I'm coastin quite happily down the street, towards my original location of Serenity Park.

"Where the fuck do you think you're goin!"

Suddenly, an arm reaches out from the boyfriends' front garden, grabs my shirt and pulls me inside. The pure fuckin shock of it is enough to drop me, just for a moment. I know that I don't have worry too much about lettin myself get dropped, cause I know I'm strong enough to get myself back up again.

Within seconds, I'm down and pinned with speed I ain't fuckin accustomed to. I'm about to grab for where the throat should be, before I catch a whiff of something familiar.

Dadanian roots.

Jack.

Cold, hard metal presses under my jaw and heavy weight pins me to the grass.

"I ain't done with you," she growls. "What are you doing here?"

I grin up at her, innocent as you like, and reply "Bein sat on and threatened with my own shiv."

"My shiv, IRichardI." She reminds me.

I shrug...best I can with fourteen stone of teenage killin machine trained by my own hand sat on my arms.

"My old one. And seriously, kid, that name? Punishment enough."

He anger drains quickly, like it always does, and she swings off of me. I sit up, rubbing feelin back into my dead arms as she waves her shiv at me again.

"What are you doin' here?" She asks. "Spying on me?"

"Not quite," I tell her. "Didn't you hear the commotion next door? I made a friend."

She takes a mock swing at my head. "I'm sure that's completely coincidental."

I finally notice the nervy kid behind her.

"Your boyfriend?" I ask.

"Your foster dad?" The kid asks, damn near shittin himself. Yeah, he recognizes me.

"Oh, I'm your foster dad now, am I?"

She shrugs, innocent as you like, and tells me "It's shorter than 'escaped-convict-who-took-me-in-and-is-the-only-family-I-have-and-trained-me-and-kept-me-fed-and-clothed-for-the-last-five-years-but-still-insists-he's-not-my-foster-father'."

I quirk my head a bit. "Point."

"And yes, Damian," she tells him. "He is."

Poor kid looks about to feint.

"N-nice to meet you." He tells me, holding out a hand.

I look at Jack, IYou ain't seriousIlike, and she gestures with her shiv towards my crown jewels.

I take the kids hand and shake it. Soaked to the bone with sweat. Yeah, he's shittin himself.

"Wow, Jack, figured you'd pick a boyfriend...not a girlfriend."

I wait for Jack to come out with somethin, but it's actually the boyfriend who does it.

"And I though I was meeting Jack's foster father, not mother."

Well, would ya listen to that? Not a hint of fear.

"Skittish to guts, kid," I grin. "Gotta love that. Here, Jack, remember when you did that?"

She turns pink and I gotta laugh at the kid. She knows I'm talkin about T2, when she wanted so much to be like me, but couldn't quite stop bein like her. Skittish as you please, but hiding it behind false bravado and attitude which wasn't hers. One of the first things I liked about her.

"Keep yourself and Jack out of trouble and I think we'll get along fine," I tell the kid...Damian, right?

"Now Iyou,I" I snap at Jack, "have some explaining to do."


	3. Rules of Riddick

Summery – Same old

AN – Same old

Disclaimers – If that dude were mine, I like to think I'd notice it.

III

A few minutes later, Jack and I were back home. Shivs were safely locked in the back room and we were screaming at each other quite merrily.

"I told you before, Jack, don't fuckin lie to me. You wanna go off with yer boyfriend, fine, I don't give two shits. I trust you to be careful, and I know you're more than capable of takin care of yourself, but you should have told me where you were going. If you say you're 'round Joannes, or Cube or Deena's, and you're not, what the hell am I meant to do if something goes wrong? If we have to get off planet immediately, I won't have the time to go trailin my ass around tryin to find you because you decided to play secrets."

"Riddick, I don't have to tell you everything I do in my spare time!" Jack screamed back. "If I wanna go see Damian, you shouldn't give me this much shit for it."

Ready to throw something, I spin and shouts "I DON'T GIVE A BLUE FUCKIN SHIT WHERE YOU ARE OR WHO YOU'RE WITH OR WHAT YOU'RE DOIN! JUST SO LONG AS I I_KNOWI_!" I know I'm losing my temper, and I know I shouldn't, but hey, fuck it. Sometimes, killin somethin can do you the world of good. Well, not killin somethin, anymore at least, but fighting like you're gonna do some damage.

A cushion hitting me in the side of the head snaps me back to the teenager storming into her bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

_IWhy oh why do I put up with this?I_

Things were so much simpler when I just had to look out for me.

The old rules were simple to keep.

_IDon't make friends...don't show trust...never listen to anyone else if your instincts go against it. Look after yourself first, then others if there's something to be gained from it. Lie, cheat, steal, kill...do whatever's necessary to survive.I_

But the number one rule...the most important one of all:

_IDon't let anyone in.I_

They were the rules my life was based around. I lived by these rules. I never broke them, because to break them meant death.

Of course, that was before Carolyn.

Carolyn amazed me. She was so like me, yet so different. Strong survival instinct, fearless, strong in more than just the physical sense. But she was so protective of the others. She told me herself I_I would die for them.I_

Ha. I_For them not for me, huh Carolyn?I_We all know how that turned out.

I went onto that planet with one set of rules.

I left with her rules.

Fuck, I even sat down with Jack once and wrote them down. They're pinned on the fridge.

Ten rules that we live by.

The first one is that we trust each other completely. If Jack told me to jump off of a cliff, I'd trust her to make sure I didn't go splat. I even trust her more than myself. Number two, look after number one first, then number two. For Jack, that's her, then me. For me...well, for me it's still her first. Jack is the only person I'd die for. Carolyn, maybe. But I guess I'll never have the chance to prove it. Number three, we never, I_everI_lie to each other. Four, we do not do anything to jeopardize the trust we have in each other. Rule five, we do whatever we can to keep the other safe, even if it jeopardises us. Six, one does not just run off without the other. I did that once before, and we all know how that turned out. Seven, one that Jack insisted on, Jack can do as she likes, so long as it does not jeopardise her own safety or mine. Eight, we are not afraid of each other, and we do not attempt to make the other afraid of us. But we do have respect for each other, and we do have self respect. Also along the same lines, we respect each others privacy. Nine, one of us will never, _ever _intentionally hurt the other. That means physically, emotionally, no. We spar and train together all the time, and injuries are accidental, but unavoidable. Also, we argue, like we did this evening, and often one of us, usually me, will end up saying something we regret. But we never physically attack each other with the intention to do damage, and we always apologise for what we say during arguments.

The last rule, one that I included despite Jack's protests, is that she is to understand that just because she's tough and capable and all that, she's only human. She is officially fucked up if she never feels sadness or pain, and one rule is that she mustn't force herself not to show that she's feeling it...not around me, at least. She's caused more problems than it's worth trying to hide pain I know she's feeling just to try and prove something to me. The only real problem is that she turned it around on me. She has made me agree to not keep things from her to. Not that I could anyway...she knows me too well, much as I hate to admit it.

"I'm sorry," a little voice behind me lets me know she's come out of her room.

"S'okay, kid." I tell her. "Don't do it again."

Strange. Anyone else and I'd open an artery for 'em if they did something like lie to me when I trusted them. But this kid...

I ain't a softy, I swear.

The Carolyn in the back of my head laughs at my half-hearted lie.

So I got a soft spot for kids. Deal with it.


	4. Living arrangements

Summery – Riddick and Jack face some truths

AN – THANKYOUSOMUCH to everyone who reviewed! I got this chapter up just for you!

AN2 – Just for the records, I don't like this chapter. I can't put my finger on what it is - it just doesn't…work. Grr! Anyone out there ever written the chapter and liked the idea, but hated the way you wrote it? I done that. And it is really REALLY annoying!

Disclaimers – Own Riddick? YES PLEASE!

Deds – To all my reviewers! Mwuah! Mwuah!

Chapter 4

"Yeeee!" Koli shrieks. "Richard's come to visit again!"

See, this works great. Jack goes to see Damian, I go to see Koli, and I spy on Damian and Jack while I'm at it. This is the way we've been workin for the last four weeks. The only problems are that I can't do too much spyin because of problem two, Jack knows what I'm doin' and is always sure to keep out of sight and problem three is the ever present threat of Coli tellin her mom. At least the daft woman still thinks I don't exist. That's some consolation.

But then there's problem four.

Koli's kinda…growin on me.

Fuck you, I ain't goin soft. It's just…I guess kids don't see people like me the way everyone else does. She doesn't know me, she doesn't understand what I've done. So she doesn't fear me. I can start over around her, just for a while. Just until she learns who I really am.

I know the day'll come sooner or later when I'll stop visitin, when I stop pullin bull shit excuses about spyin on Jack. I even know that I'm breaking my ever precious rule of not letting anyone in.

But it's almost worth it…to know what it's like to be treat by just another man.

"So what's it like?" Damian asks, completely out of the blue I assure you.

"What's what like?"

"Living with Riddick, of course." Oh. Right. Time for that conversation, huh?

I shrug and answer as honest as I can.

"Like livin with a hell hound."

Damian snorts, obviously thinkin I'm tryin to pull a joke.

"I'm serious, he stinks, he growls, he never gets out of bed, he snaps, he's bloody vicious, and you do not want him takin a swipe at you."

I don't think Damian knows whether to laugh or start bowing down to me for sayin that about Riddick. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw that look somewhere else once…oh yeah, Paris, back on T2. Stupid dude was so funny…'Shazza, get off my booze…Zeke, get off my booze…Fry, get off my booze…Riddick- err…would you like some crackers with your drink, Mr. Riddick?'

"He's loyal as a hound, though. Protective…and he's cuddly as a teddy bear once you get to know him."

I'm pretty sure Damian thinks I've lost my mind.

"You know, my mom used to work for the authorities, helping them track the moves of killers and criminals who went on the run. She was a criminologist, so she used to looks for clues…stuff like that. Riddick was one of her cases just after he left the military."

Wow. Attention needs to be paid to this, thinks I.

"She let me use her old case files for practise," he tells me. "Cause I want to be a criminologist too, some day. It always did fascinate me…"

'You've seen Riddicks file?" I ask. I mean, hey, yeah, I'm curios. His first kill I know about, and the rest I got the short version. But I never really got to find out what everyone else thought of him.

"Yeah," Damian tells me, jumping up to pull a box out from under some clothes piled in his wardrobe. "Here's all the old case files I used to use."

He opens the box and finds Riddicks' easily…it's several times larger than the rest.

"The thing that puzzles everyone the most is that he just sorta…appeared. You know Richard B. Riddick isn't his real name, right?"

_"Richard after the boyfriend, so I never forget why I am who I am. The rest is from my foster-sister. Brenna Riddick."_

_I nodded and looked away, trying to absorb what I was hearing_

_Suddenly, I realised something_

_"You're middle name's Brenna!" _

_"Brendon, if anyone has to know." He told me defensively. "But yea. Sorta secretly." _

_"Sweet."_

"_I just knew that when she died, she'd be forgotten. Sent to a mass-grave planet and given a number. Another kid no one wanted. Calling myself Richard B. Riddick was a way of making sure she'd never be forgotton...and neither would her killer."_

"Yeah," I tell him. "I know."

"Well, the truth is that no one knows what his name was. The earliest we can find is when he joined the military in the Jekovian system when he was seventeen. 'Next-of-Kin' was left blank, his home world was marked 'Unknown'…" he pauses for a minute and looks at me. "Don't suppose you know anything, do you?"

Plenty, mate.

"No," I tell him simply. "I don't."

He sets the file back into the box and slides the box under his bed. He sits back in the silence, probably knowing he's walking on eggshells and not knowing what to say next.

"You never did answer my question."

I turn back towards him.

"Hmm?"

"What's it like living with him?"

I sigh…I'm pretty sure I told him this one already…

"Told you. Hellhound."

"No," he argues, "seriously."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I mean, why did he take you in? Mr. Badass of the universe doesn't strike me as the kind to start a family."

Wow, questions. I hate those.

"He doesn't want the responsibility of a daughter, I don't want the oppression of a father. He doesn't have enough faith in his own abilities, at least not where paternal shit's involved, and I brought myself up for far too many years to want a father." I pause, suddenly realising that while those points were true, they were irrelevant. Why _did _he take me in? "I guess he needed a kid that he didn't need to do everything for, and I needed a father figure who wouldn't try to do everything for me. We were both just what the other needed."

He shrugs and sits back, probably doing that weird processing thing he does. I think it's 'cause he tries to criminologize everything.

"Why did Riddick become a killer?"

Yeah, I was right.

"I can't tell you." I say eventually.

"Why not?"

I slide my sun-glasses down over my eyes before I turn back to look at Damian.

"S'not my secret to tell."

"Wanna know a secret?"

Koli seems to me to be completely incapable of shuttin' up for more than four seconds. We're sat in she shadows of some trees around the side of the Tranquility Park, and she's throwing seeds or somethin' at the shadows as they move. One of those games only a kid could find fun, I guess.

"Sure," I tell her, still watching Damian's house while Koli plays.

"Sally likes you."

Sally…the kids' doll that I gave her. Jacks' idea…I think she just wanted to see me have to carry the damn thing under my arm. And it didn't really help my attempts to make Koli not like me.

"Really?" I ask, uninterested.

"Mmmhmm," Koli hums. "She says you're nice 'cause you're nice to me."

S'not like I have the choice, kid.

"Sounds fair enough."

Koli sits in silence a while…well, as long as is possible for her, which is an average of about a second, second and a half if I get lucky.

"Wanna know another secret?"

I sigh and turn to look at Koli. It's not like I'll see Jack…or anything else…anyway.

"What?"

"Sally likes Jackie, too."

Ha. Jackie…Koli's rather adorable nick-name for Jack, which only really manages to piss her off. Nice revenge though for her lying to me.

"Yeah, well, Jackie's a good kid."

I gotta admit, I'm kinda proud of Jack. She's lived with me for three years, and she's still sane.

"Richaaaaard?"

I'm not gonna like this question too much, am I?

"Yeah, kid?"

"Is Jackie your daughter?"

At that I almost have to laugh.

"No, Koli," I tell her. "She's…"

What?

I guess it never mattered before, but suddenly, I wanna know. What the fuck is she? She's not my daughter, not my foster-daughter even. She's not my sister, not really like any family. But she's not just a friend either. And we're not…like that.

Not family…not friends…not lovers...

What does that leave?

"I'm not sure. We just get along."

"Like you and me get along?"

I smile at the kid and nod.

"Yeah, Koli, like we get along."

Koli nods, apparently accepting my answers, and starts throwing tiny stones at the shadows again.


	5. Translations of Blame

Family chapter 5

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's five AM, and thank's to my good friend Ivan Insomnia, I am very sleep deprived, yet cannot sleep. So, I'm putting my Riddick saturated mind to use (I've just finished watching PB, DF and CoR without a break. I'm on Riddick high...drool)...lets see if I can't get this right!

Disclaimer - I'm not that sleep deprived.

"Enjoy your boyfriend?"

Heeheehee.

Guess my evasion techniques worked. He couldn't spy on us and it's grating.

"Very much so, yes." I tell him with the voice and smile and eyes that leave nothing to the imagination as to what we've been doing. Of course, we haven't been doing it, but hey, I'm a good lier. I know that a normal parent would be livid at the tought of their little girl doin' 'that', but Riddick's reaction is hillarious.

Nothing.

He doesn't move he doesn't say anything, he doesn't do anything.

But even though I can't see his face, I know that look.

He wants to go gut something.

I turn to face him and I catch something in his eyes as he slides his mask back on.

"What's the matter, Riddick? Spyin' didn't go too well for you?"

"It only counts as spyin' if you can actually see somethin'." He grumbles.

He turns into the kitchen and starts running the water to do the washing up. Yes, the old fashioned way. We have the riches and resources of the universe at our fingertips, but we're living in one of the most run-down homes in one of the most run down cities in one of the most run-down planets in the known universe.

After a moment I take pity on him.

"We didn't do anything." I tell him honestly.

"I know."

Of course he knows, he would have been able to smell it on me if we had been.

"But you didn't know when you couldn't see me, and that's what bugs you."

Shit, busted.

"What do you want me to say, Jack?" I demand. "You and I have been living together for the last three and a half years, you know I worry about you."

It's true and I will admit it. I care about her, and I worry about her, because honestly, I don't want to be without her. I realise that in the last four seconds worth of thought I've broken almost every rule I ever created before Jack, but I also realise I don't care.

"How did it go with Koli?"

"How do you expect?" I tell her. "She's five, Jack. She did five-year-old things and I tried to keep tabs on you."

She pauses a second, just in that moment, she reminds me a little of Koli, just the way she holds herself while she gets ready to ask something important.

"Are you gonna carry on going round?"

I know what she means. Her evasive manuvers have told me quite plainly that I'm not gonna be able to spy anymore and I'll just have to trust her, and she's askin' if I'm gonna keep on goin to see Koli. If I don't, I'm an ass, if I do, then I've broken my old AND new rules. Hearts are like parachutes, I once got told, they work best when they're open. I learned otherwise. But hearts need using, or they die, and like any other part of my body, it doesn't want to die. It wants to live and thrive, and always has. So it did what was in its' nature to do...it trusted and loved and landed me in shit. But I had no choice but to let it do it's thing. So I took the safest option and went for kids. Hence Brenna, hence Jack, hence Koli. I love kids cause they don't see me the way normal people do. I'm not a psychotic killer to be hated, I'm either cool or I'm a saviour or I'm just a guy. It's safer to trust kids then anyone else.

But once you open the door to one kid, you may as well be a fuckin' space port. They all wanna come in.

"Yeah, well," I tell her after a moment, "Gotta keep an eye on you, haven't I?"

I deem him worth of a snort, but don't say anything else. When he carries on arguing one point, even though he knows I know he's lost, it's like some sort of code for us. "Gotta keep an eye on you" loosely translates to "Koli's wormed her way into my heart the way you did but if I admit it I may as well dig a six foot hole in the garden and bury my pride and damned mans ego, so please for the love of all things holy leave me alone and do not make me drop the tough guy act".

That's what I love most about Riddick...his simplisity.

"You still worried about Damian?" I ask after a moment and I see him tense a little at the name.

"You're a big girl, Jack." He tells me. "You can take care of yourself."

I roll my eyes. Loose translation: "It bugs the hell out of me, I want to keep you as a kid forever."

"Doesn't answer my question." I point out.

He drops the plate he was cleaning back into the bowl and storms off, leaving a trail of soapy water behind him.

"Wash your own fuckin' dishes!" He shouts, slamming his way into his room.

Wow. Loose translation; "You hit a nerve, bitch."

How did that happen?

Any normal...or at least non-suicidal person would have left Riddick to sulk in peace, but not me.

"Riddick?"

Fuck sake, kid. "What?"

"I'm sorry." She tells me, and all anger, hatred and fear melts instantly. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't," I tell her gruffly, but I know she doesn't beleive me.

I see her shilloetted in the doorway of light from the next room, and I know she doesn't know whether to cut her losses and leave, or stand there and try to stirke up a more successful conversation.

"I lost it, kid." I tell her. "That's all."

There, kid. That's my explanation, take it or leave it.

"Why?"

Or pick it to death.

"Come in here." I tell her, gesturing to the place on the bed beside me. "Close the door."

She does as I say, and I know that she won't move to turn the lights on. She knows me that well. I feel the weight of her settle on the bed beside me, and I can feel her body heat against my arm. A waft of her smell hits me, then her taste on the air.

This is what the world feels and smells and sounds and tastes like to me.

Like Jack.

"M'sorry," I tell her after a while. I know she won't understand it, but it's the best explanation I can offer.

"For what?"

I don't answer her...I can't. I don't know what the fuck to say. I told her about Brenna, and I told her all the fucked up shit in my past, and I know the fucked up shit in her past, and we both worry about the other and we both know we worry about each other, and we both care about each other and want to keep each other safe and for the first time in my life I am truely sorry because I know I can't. I can't protect her, I can't keep her safe in any sense of the word, and I can't be what she needs. I can't 'talk' about it, and I can't be allright with her not allowing me to keep tabs on her 24/7.

"I'm sorry," I tell her again, before I fall back onto my bed, suddenly exhausted.

'Could you have said any more, Riddick?' I think to myself for a moment. I know he only said two words, but...

"I'm sorry."

Loose translation: "Something's wrong, and I can't explain it or understand it or solve it and I'm sorry cause I'm fucking it up for you."

I know that I am the only thing he would ever be sorry for...he's sorry if he thinks he's failed me because he has failed Fry and he's failed Brenna and he's failed everyone else he loves, and it kills him. Every time he fail, it kills him.

Unsure of what else to do, I lay down beside him, feeling a sort of sad exhaustion. I curl up beside him like I used to on the way to New Mecca, or on UV6, and a small comfort is that he's laying on his back, one arm behind his head. I found I can tell his moods by his position...arms behind his head, he's thinking deep thoughts. One arm, he's thinking and hurting. If he's on his side, he's seriously hurting and needs a hug, but won't accept one. Baby.

I curl against his side and the arm comes down around be like it always used to. Apparently, he's tired too. His breath is leveling out into hazy half-sleep as he pulls me again him and turns onto his side to he's facing me. Shifting again, we finally find ourselves curled in a familiar hug, and we sleep.

How was that chapter? Good? Shizen? LATE? Yeah, I know, I'm really sorry. Writers block hit me over the head...in all fairness, it's exam time. I have my first exam (4 minutes of speaking German about my school and alkahol, fun) on Tuesday, and I have some serious revising to do! AAAHHH!

Btw, any "way it could have gone..." readers, watch this space...update expected any day now...honest.


	6. Time for THAT conversation

Family chapter 6

AN - God, how sorry am I that this has taken so long? And I haven't even written the next chapter for "the way it could have gone..." Exams, jobs, family, Fantasy game-book series...you name it, it's been attacking me. Fanfic just got shoved down to the bottom of my list of priorities and completely forgotton, and I've only just remembered them! EEK! Sorry! (hides under computer chair).

Disclaimer - I own Koli...and I will fight you in a firey ring of flame for her, 'cause I need her for the Game-books. Damian I own, but would happily lend out...or sell, if anyone's interested. But I own nothing else.

J J J J J

Warm.

It's strange, because that's the first thing I realise when I wake up, and it's not something I'm used to realizing.

Riddick.

I know that smell, that breathing.

The arm around my waist is familiar...

Riddick.

"Mornin'."

I un-curl myself in his arms and strech, rememberin layin down last night like I used to when I was a kid. It was...nice. Like curling up with your old teddy bear. Yeah, there's a comparison for ya, hey?

"What time is it?" I ask and he rolls over to check.

"Nearly seven," he tells me. "Wanna get up?"

Finishing my stretch, I curl against him again.

"Not particularly."

I feel him laugh more than a hear it, and he sighs and settles his arm back around me, and for a moment, I just lay there in comfort, just...absorbing.

And suddenly Damian's question comes back to me...what is it with us?

This isn't something that a daughter and father would do...share a bed now an' then, sure. But a daughter doesn't get this much happiness from it, do they? Nor would a kid sister. But we sure as hell ain't...ya' know...like that. And as for friends...well, I have friends. I doubt I would ever be in this situation with any of them.

"Deep thoughts, Kid?" Riddick pulls away from me a little, tryin to look down at my face.

"What makes you say that?" I ask, and he smiles.

"The fact that I've asked that question four times an this is the first one to get an answer."

"Oh." I blush. "Giveaway, huh?"

He stretches beside me and scratches his shoulder as he prods; "You gonna tell me?"

I bite my lip a moment...I know Riddick won't wanna hear that Damian an me have been talkin about him, but I know I can't keep a secret, not from Riddick.

"Damian asked about you yesterday," I tell him as carefully as I can. "Just about what it was like livin' with you an' why you took me in an' stuff. I didn't tell him anything, but it made me think."

Still tense, Riddick flexes his jaw and asks "About what?"

Another pause, but again it's pointless.

"Why did you take me in?"

R R R R R

What the fuck?

"What kinda question's that, Jack?"

She shrugs against me and murmers something.

"Wha'?"

"I just started wonderin'," She repeats. "That's all."

Hell...it's bad enough having to try an' explain this shit to myself. To someone else?

What the hell to I tell her? 'Cause I wanted to protect her? She'll get pissy. That I cared about her? Yeah fuckin' right, I'd say that. That I didn't wanna upset her again? Like I can undo all the fuck ups I made with her.

'Cause of Brenna?

For redemption for what I let happen?

Maybe in the beginning...but it din't exactly work now, did it? I fucked up again. I couldn't keep her safe from me or herself or Mercs or Rykangols. Shit, I know what's happened to her. I would rather she was just shot by the Mercs than...

"Riddick?"

I wrap my arm around her again and sigh against the top of her head.

"I dunno, kid."

We set into silence again, and for a minute, I can ignore the question and drift into another peaceful half sleep.

"Do you ever think about it?"

A short minute, anyway.

"No," I state simply.

Another pause.

"Do you ever regret it?"

Now that makes me double take.

I pull away from her again, puttin my hand to the side of her face so she's gotta look at me.

"What made you ask that?"

She shrugs again and looks down at the sheets of the bed.

"I just...do you?"

J J J J J

I know it's an evil question, but what Damian asked yesterday really got me worried. What if Riddick really did only take me in because he had to? What if he never wanted me here? What if he left me on New Mecca for a reason?

"We never did have this discussion on UV, did we?" He asks and I shake my head. "I took you in because it was the best option for both of us, but I can't say I never regretted meeting you."

My eyes snap back up to look at him, but I realise I'm about to start crying at the admission and I can't hold his gaze in case he sees it.

"I regret it because everything that happened to you in the last five years happened because of me," he explains, so quiet.

"That's not true."

"You know it is," he argues. "If you hadn't met me, you wouldn't have nearly died on the Kublah Kahn, you wouldn't have been left on New Mecca with Holy Man, you wouldn't have had to run away if I hadn't left you, you would have been able to have a normal life if you'd never met me rather than this fucked up excuse for a life you've led. You wouldn't have gotten caught up with Merc's, you wouldn't have been sold like a slab of meat to fuckin' Ryks..."

I looks up at him, and I could swear to God the shining eyes are just a little shinier than usual.

"If I hadn't met you, I would be dead now."

"And this life is better?" He demands. "Living like a criminal on the frozen fuckin' fingertip for two years is better? Living like...like me? That's better?"

"Living with you is better." I correct. "Riddick, I've killed and died for you. I don't care what happens to me or how I have to live my life so long as it's with you."

R R R R R

End Notes - I know, that was pathetic! I just need to warm up again, and I'm in the middle of a Lost story (I know, I'm in the middle of millions of stories!) And I got a new job which I'm in the middle of training for which is explodifying my head and I'm a HUGE distance behind on my New World stories, I've barely even STARTED the NaNo story! It's insane, and Fanfic ain't big on my list at the moment...which bums, 'cause I want it to be. I wanna get this done (and "way it could have gone") Before the next flaming film comes out! Only thing is, it's been so long since I did Riddick stuff that he's vacated, and he took the plot with him. I'm really trying to keep the story going, Y'all. Anyways...I appologized again for the shortness and the plotlessness, but at least it's something to go 'aww' over. 


End file.
